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Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials
Format The competition exists out of two phases. The qualification phase exists out of two rounds, with athletes jumping once in each round. The six highest scores of the first qualification directly qualify for the final, while the remaining athletes compete in the second round. In the second round, the top six competitors qualify for the final, counting the best score in either round of the qualification. The final phase exists out of three rounds, each with one jump. After each round, the lowest three scores of that round are out of the competition. The competitor with the highest score in the final round of the final is the winner. Preview Twenty-five athletes qualified for the event with Alla Tsuper as the reigning Olympic champion, while reigning medalists Xu Mentao, who was the favorite to win gold, and Lydia Lassila, also the former Olympic champion of 2010, returned as well. Xu was the leading athlete in the rankings over the season, while some younger athletes were chasing her on this board. Among this younger generation were Belarusian Hanna Huskova, Russian Kristina Spiridonova, and Belarusian Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya. Outsiders included Danielle Scott, Kiley McKinnon, and Ashley Caldwell. Summary Qualification 1 The top 6 of the first qualification would go through to the final, while the remaining 19 would have another chance in the second round of the qualification. The athletes who went directly to the finals were Alexandra Orlova, Hanna Huskova, Xu Mentao, Kristina Spiridonova, Danielle Scott and Zhang Xin. Reigning Olympic champion Alla Tsuper was only on 15th place after the first round, and she would have to improve herself, in order to go to the final. The same applied to two-time medalist Lydia Lassila, who was 18th after the first round. Qualification 2 The second round of the qualification would see the remaining 19 athletes jumping again to contend for the top 6 placements. The scores of the first round remained, with the highest score of two jumps counting. Alla Tsuper took revenge for her low score in the first jump, getting a score of almost 100 points, taking the top spot in the second round of the qualification. Kong Fanyu, who was in pole position to go through, improved her score yet again, securing her of a place in the final, while Australian Laura Peel, Liubov Nikitina and Americans Kiley McKinnon and Madison Olsen advanced as well. Lydia Lassila disappointed with only the 14th score in the second round, while Ashley Caldwell, an outsider for the title and reigning world champion, failed to qualify as well. Final 1 The first jump in the final saw 12 athletes, with 9 athletes going through to the second jump in the final. Partly due to the wind, Danielle Scott and Kristina Spiridonova fell during landing, which left them out of contention for the gold medal. Kiley McKinnon had a very deep landing, missing out on a big score, and missed the top 9 by almost 5 points difference. Huskova topped the leaderboards after the first jump, proving her potential, while favorite Xu and reigning titleholder Tsuper getting scores of over 90. Final 2 The second jump in the final would once again see three competitors leaving the competition, and once again, two participants failed to deliver. This time, top favorite Xu and Alexandra Orlova disappointed, making sure that yet another big favorite would not compete for the gold medal. The other participant for the Olympic Athletes from Russia Liubov Nikitina failed to qualify as well, while the other Chinese participants, Kong and Zhang, topped the second jump. Final 3 The third and last jump of the final was one with difficult circumstances. The wind made jumping a real challenge, and this was proven in the scores of the athletes. Olsen, Peel, and Tsuper fell during landing and got scores below the 60 points, while Kong played it safe, but with the number of mistakes of other participants, secured herself of a bronze medal. Huskova and Zhang risked everything, Huskova hoping that the higher difficulty of the jump made the difference, while Zhang hoped on her execution. While the execution of Zhang was higher than Huskova's, the difference made by the difficulty was determining, leaving Huskova as the Olympic champion. Results Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/StartList|Startlist Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Qualification1|Qualification 1 Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Qualification2|Qualification 2 Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Final1|Final 1 Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Final2|Final 2 Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Final3|Final 3 Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials/Standings|Standings||true Category:Pyeongchang 2018 Events Category:Freestyle Skiing 2018